How to Position Yourself for Promotion
Control Your Career
If you want to get promoted, create more career options, and stop feeling stuck at work, you need more than strong performance. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre breaks down how to position yourself for promotion by building real career leverage. Promotion decisions are rarely based on effort alone. Leaders evaluate trust, visibility, judgment, and risk. This episode explains how to build the five forms of career leverage that determine whether you are seen as promotable or simply dependable in your current role. You’ll learn how to strengthen: Skill range that...
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Hard Work Isn’t Enough to Grow Your Career
Control Your Career
Why do high performers get stuck in their careers? If you feel like you are working hard but not getting promoted, you may be experiencing a mid-career plateau. In this first episode of Season 13, Julia Toothacre explores why performance alone stops driving career growth and what actually moves professionals forward. Hard work gets you established, but it is not what grows your career long term. Julia Toothacre introduces a more accurate model for how careers evolve once you are established. Early career rewards effort and execution, but at a certain point, advancement needs positioning,...
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Writing A Career Book: Updates, Breakthroughs & Lessons Learned
Control Your Career
I'm pulling back the curtain on my book-writing journey! In this bonus episode, I'm sharing an honest update on my upcoming book based on the Control Your Career process: what I've written so far, what I've learned, and why writing a book is WAY harder than I expected. Part 1 is for anyone curious about the book itself: what it's about, who it's for, and why I think it's different from every other career book out there. (Spoiler: it actually meets you where you are, not where some career expert thinks you should be.) Part 2 is for my fellow writers, authors, and coaches: I'm getting...
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Financial Control Beyond Your Paycheck and 401(k)
Control Your Career
This bonus episode of Control Your Career is a little different, and very intentional. Julia Toothacre is joined by financial professional and podcast host Natalie Kime for a real, grounded conversation about money, career decisions, and life transitions. This is not a tactical breakdown of investments or retirement accounts. It is a conversation about how money actually shows up in real life. Natalie brings a deeply human perspective to financial planning, shaped not only by her professional experience, but also by her role as a caregiver to her mom. Together, Julia and Natalie talk about...
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My Health Journey, Without Pressure or Shame
Control Your Career
You are not imagining it. This is a career podcast, and this is a bonus episode about health. In this episode of Control Your Career, I share my own health journey from the past few years. It’s personal, it’s slow, and it unfolded alongside work, family, and real life. I talk through what changed, what didn’t, and what I had to rethink along the way. Health started to matter more to me because I could feel it affecting how I showed up. My energy. My confidence. My ability to make clear decisions. I knew I needed an approach that I could actually sustain, not something built on pressure,...
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Career Goals You Can Control in 2026
Control Your Career
As 2026 approaches, career goal setting feels more complicated than ever. Between layoffs, AI disruption, shifting industries, and economic uncertainty, many professionals are wondering if traditional goal-setting even makes sense anymore. In this bonus episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre breaks down how to set realistic, grounded career goals for 2026 without relying on hype, hustle, or unrealistic predictions. Instead of focusing on outcomes you can’t control, Julia explains how to shift your attention to goals rooted in skills, behavior, clarity, and adaptability. This episode...
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How to Make a Confident Career Pivot
Control Your Career
You are not crazy for wanting more, and you are not ungrateful for questioning if your current path still fits. Change is a natural part of career growth, but for many mid- to late-career professionals, fear and doubt make the idea of starting over feel impossible. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre shares how to make a career pivot with strategy, self-awareness, and confidence, no matter how long you have been in the game. Using her five-stage Control Your Career framework, she helps you evaluate your reality, understand your values, and design an intentional plan that...
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Recovering Confidence When Work Knocks You Down
Control Your Career
Setbacks can shake your confidence, your stability, and your sense of identity. Whether you have been laid off, made a mistake, or received unexpected feedback, losing confidence can feel like losing control. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre shares how to rebuild your confidence step by step after a setback at work. Using her five-stage Control Your Career framework, Julia walks through how to regain your footing with self-awareness, structure, and small intentional actions that rebuild belief in yourself. You will learn: Why confidence takes a hit after a setback ...
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How to Keep Up at Work Without Constant Reinvention
Control Your Career
The world of work is changing faster than ever, and staying relevant can feel overwhelming. Do you really need to take a new course every week, become a thought leader, or completely reinvent yourself to keep up? Absolutely not. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre breaks down what real relevance looks like and how to maintain it without burnout or pressure. Through her five-stage Control Your Career framework, she shows how to focus on what matters most, staying informed, visible, and valuable without exhausting yourself trying to keep pace with every trend. You will...
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3 Personality-Based Networking Strategies That Actually Work
Control Your Career
Do you hate networking? You are not alone. For many professionals, networking feels forced, fake, and exhausting. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre redefines what networking really is and how to make it authentic, strategic, and aligned to your personality. Julia breaks down why traditional networking advice fails introverts and overachievers, and she shares a simple approach that helps you connect genuinely without the small talk or awkward coffee chats. You will learn how to: Reframe networking from transactional to relational Identify your natural networking style...
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